Contemporary operating tables are designed primarily to facilitate the performance of surgical operations on the head, torso and legs. Heretofore, wrist, hand and forearm surgery has often been performed with the arm suspended in the air; the four fingers of a hand are inserted in diagonally-woven tubular devices much like the Chinese finger traps which constrict, grasping the finger, when stretched. Such a suspension method does not provide optimum stability for performing delicate operations, nor does it facilitate the taking of X-ray photographs. It would be very desireable to support the arm of the patient on a firm, horizontal, radiolucent surface in a state of traction. Such a position would facillitate both the taking of X-ray photographs and the performance of complex forearm, wrist and hand surgery.